The Baptist’s Question (v. 2-6)
A legation comes from the Baptist. He himself is in prison. He has now heard about “the works of Christ”. One could also translate it “Christ works” or “Messiah works”. That was what Jesus did. The prophets had said it: When God came to his people, then “the blind receive their sight...and the deaf hear”. Then shall “the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is 35:5f). Yet it was not exactly the kind of works, which John had expected. He had talked about the winnowing fork and the fire, where the chaff would be burned. What happened to these?
Thus John asks his question: Are you the one who would come? And Jesus asks the disciples to tell about what they had seen and heard themselves. This is the evidence: the word and the works. This is evidence enough for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. He is able to see that Messiah has come and that the Kingdom is here. That is why disease and death now has to retreat. Greatest of everything that God is now doing is this: The poor have good news preached to them. The poor are those whom Jesus turned to in his sermon on the mount. This is the greatest miracle of all: that God makes these poor his children. This has to be enough evidence for the Baptist. And Jesus adds: Blesses is the one who is not offended by me. The one who does not see nor understand when God works in this way, he will never understand. The one who is offended that God revels himself in this way and not in overwhelming power and glory, he will never get to know God. This is a warning, that Jesus is probably not directing to the Baptist, but maybe rather to his messengers and surely to the people who are standing around listening.
Who Is The Baptist? (v. 7-15)
Now Jesus is turning to the people. He is talking about the Baptist. Who did they really think that he was? Surely they did not go into the wilderness to see a cautious politician, who stuck his finger in the air to see where the wind was blowing? Surely they did not expect a well-dressed and bowing servant of the king’s house? They all knew what they were waiting to see. They wanted to meet a prophet, a real prophet. And that is what the Baptist really was, Jesus says. Even more than a prophet. He was the greatest in a long line of men of God who had lived on earth until now. And yet - so great was this new time, that now was breaking in, that the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven (in other words, the kingdom of God) is greater than this the greatest of all the prophets. It cannot be said any clearer, that the kingdom of God comes with something that is completely new, something that did not exist in the old covenant, something that not even the Forerunner, the great Baptist owned. This was what Jesus brought. This only existed in him and with him.
The shocking thing is now, Jesus continues, that people think that they will be able to prevent the Kingdom by force. They have thrown John in jail. They will continue in the same way. Jesus only touches slightly on the subject, but one senses that he is looking forward to his own suffering. Violent men want to steal the kingdom. All the prophets and the law - that is the whole Scripture - had borne witness about what would come. Thus people should know better. But now that Elijah had come, as it had been said, then he was treated like this!
Here Jesus intentionally talks in cryptic words all the time. Only the one who understands the mystery of the kingdom of heaven will understand. Therefore he adds, as in so many other occasions: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! And the scholars still argue today about what he really meant. The words as they are in Greek can lingustically be translated in a different way. In the Swedish Bible from 1917 they are translated as “the kingdom of heaven advances with power and people rush ahead to snatch it”. But both linguistically and in fact this translation seems to be less likely.
A legation comes from the Baptist. He himself is in prison. He has now heard about “the works of Christ”. One could also translate it “Christ works” or “Messiah works”. That was what Jesus did. The prophets had said it: When God came to his people, then “the blind receive their sight...and the deaf hear”. Then shall “the lame leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is 35:5f). Yet it was not exactly the kind of works, which John had expected. He had talked about the winnowing fork and the fire, where the chaff would be burned. What happened to these?
Thus John asks his question: Are you the one who would come? And Jesus asks the disciples to tell about what they had seen and heard themselves. This is the evidence: the word and the works. This is evidence enough for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. He is able to see that Messiah has come and that the Kingdom is here. That is why disease and death now has to retreat. Greatest of everything that God is now doing is this: The poor have good news preached to them. The poor are those whom Jesus turned to in his sermon on the mount. This is the greatest miracle of all: that God makes these poor his children. This has to be enough evidence for the Baptist. And Jesus adds: Blesses is the one who is not offended by me. The one who does not see nor understand when God works in this way, he will never understand. The one who is offended that God revels himself in this way and not in overwhelming power and glory, he will never get to know God. This is a warning, that Jesus is probably not directing to the Baptist, but maybe rather to his messengers and surely to the people who are standing around listening.
Who Is The Baptist? (v. 7-15)
Now Jesus is turning to the people. He is talking about the Baptist. Who did they really think that he was? Surely they did not go into the wilderness to see a cautious politician, who stuck his finger in the air to see where the wind was blowing? Surely they did not expect a well-dressed and bowing servant of the king’s house? They all knew what they were waiting to see. They wanted to meet a prophet, a real prophet. And that is what the Baptist really was, Jesus says. Even more than a prophet. He was the greatest in a long line of men of God who had lived on earth until now. And yet - so great was this new time, that now was breaking in, that the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven (in other words, the kingdom of God) is greater than this the greatest of all the prophets. It cannot be said any clearer, that the kingdom of God comes with something that is completely new, something that did not exist in the old covenant, something that not even the Forerunner, the great Baptist owned. This was what Jesus brought. This only existed in him and with him.
The shocking thing is now, Jesus continues, that people think that they will be able to prevent the Kingdom by force. They have thrown John in jail. They will continue in the same way. Jesus only touches slightly on the subject, but one senses that he is looking forward to his own suffering. Violent men want to steal the kingdom. All the prophets and the law - that is the whole Scripture - had borne witness about what would come. Thus people should know better. But now that Elijah had come, as it had been said, then he was treated like this!
Here Jesus intentionally talks in cryptic words all the time. Only the one who understands the mystery of the kingdom of heaven will understand. Therefore he adds, as in so many other occasions: He who has ears to hear, let him hear! And the scholars still argue today about what he really meant. The words as they are in Greek can lingustically be translated in a different way. In the Swedish Bible from 1917 they are translated as “the kingdom of heaven advances with power and people rush ahead to snatch it”. But both linguistically and in fact this translation seems to be less likely.
(translated by Kristina)
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